'It's absurd': Texas art collector finds authentic Roman bust at Goodwill

Swinging into a local Goodwill store four years ago, Texas art collector Laura Young said she went in prepared not to find anything that day.

"Goodwill is a heartbreaker," she told CTV National News. "As a dealer you have to go, but there's a high probability I'm going to leave empty handed, so I was excited just to find anything cool."

And that she did.

On the floor, under a table, for the bargain price of US$34.99, Young spotted what appeared to be a Roman bust.

"He looked very old. I tried to pick him up and he weighs 52 pounds," Young said.

"So at that point, I was pretty focused on trying to find a worker who could carry it to the front for me and I, just really, I bought him as fast as I could and got to the car."

Now, after a years-long fact-finding mission, Young has learned that not only is the bust real, dating back around 2,000 years, but also that it once belonged to a Bavarian king.

"I was obviously excited, thrilled," Young said. "Clearly it's the best thing I've ever found."

The San Antonio Museum of Art, which has the bust on temporary display before returning it to Germany in 2023, says the sculpture once stood in the town of Aschaffenburg, in a full-scale model of a house from Pompeii called the Pompejanum that was built by King Ludwig I of Bavaria.

Allied bombers targeted the town and seriously damaged the Pompejanum during the Second World War, after which the bust disappeared.

The U.S. army later set up military installations in Aschaffenburg, and the museum says a returning soldier likely brought the sculpture back to Texas.

"We are very pleased that a piece of Bavarian history that we thought was lost has reappeared and will soon be able to return to its rightful location," Bernd Schreiber, president of the Bavarian Administration of State-Owned Palaces, Gardens and Lakes, said in a news release from the San Antonio Museum.

"We would like to take this opportunity to thank the San Antonio Museum of Art for their support in returning the ancient portrait."

As for who the mystery Roman could be, the San Antonio Museum says the bust may be a son of Pompey the Great, who was defeated in a civil war by Julius Caesar.

"Yes, the backstory is just the cherry on top," Young said. "It's absurd."

With files from The Associated Press